Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-04-08
A MINE DISASTER.
A Terrible Explosion Of Gas Tuesday
Morning in Coal Mine at
Savanna, |, 7.
Six Men Killed Outright, Thirteen 9th
ers Suff0csted in Attempting
the Rescue OF Comrades.
This Lack of Ventilation Supposed to be
the Cause of the Explos:on-None
CT the Bodies Recovered.
GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.

Special to the Gazette.
SAVANNA, I. T., April ga terrible ex-
plosion in the Savanna coal mines &C.
Cured here last night. Nineteen men
were killed or smothered. The mine is
ruined. The explosion in mine No. at
this place is much worse than at first re-
ported. The body of gas fred must have
been immense. The torrent of fame
forced from the mouth Of the slope was
over q hundred feet in height and illumi-
mated the whole country like an i'm
mense flash of lightning. 1t
was followed by such a conclusion as to
startle every one for miles around. The
people in the Immediate vicinity were
severely shocked. The engine house and
lifting works, an immense structure over
100 feet loDg and two stories high, was
blown into a shapelesS mass by me
current driven out of the slope, and
IN few minutes was envelOped
in flames. From the character of the
building, and being literally saturated
with Oil, IL was not possible 10 save any
thing from the flames. There we're six
men in the mine at the time of the eX-
pi0sion, which occurred ct ten minutes
past l o'clock. The names of the
unfortunate miners are as follows:
DAVE JONES,
HUGH DOOLEY,
MILES JARRETT.
These men were miners, or the men
whose business 1t IS TO fire al the blasts
put in by the men digging coal during
the day.
WILLIAM BARNES,
CHARLEY PARSONS and
BKRr FRENCH were drivers on the reg
ular night shifts. These men were IN
doubtedly killed instantly, but SO far
their bodies have not been discovered.
The most distressing part is the suff0Ca-
ton Of thirteen men who were attempting,
with others, 10 reach the fated mine,
through the entries On No. l. The fol
lowing are the names:
JAMES WARD,
JAMES MCGINNIS,
FRED BARTZ,
THOMAS MAVEN,
MIKE KELLY,
THOMAS DANIELS,
GEORGE HITE,
PAT CLANCY,
RoAT MILLER,
PAT PAGAN,
JOHN e. WILLIAMS,
PETER RONALD and
WILLIAM HUDSON.
The workings Of the two mines run to-
gether far down in the mines, but these
means of communication have never
been attended to or kept open
and in order, although they
furnish the only means of escape from one
20 nd bnT h.
needed it is impossible to get sufficient
air through these old diSused entries to
enable the men to prosecute the search.
Out of the first party attempting to
reach No. 2 five were lost ana are
still in the mine. A second party OF
twelve CT fifteen went down. At this
writing eight Of these are reported lost
in the mine, overcome with the after
damp, and are undoubtedly dead.
This makes ten lives 81
ready sacrificed to inattcntion
and neglect in securing proper ventila-
ton and getting rid OF the gases which
form in large quantities ii the mine, and
the end is not yet. There IS NO telling at
this hour what may be the
further loss of life in the
attempt to rescue the bodies
Of those now in the mine. A cutting
is being driven through into one of the
upper lifts or entries, and when done it
is hoped the men will be eble to at least
rescue the bodies of these poor unfortun-
ates. The fans have been started in No.
2 by attaching the boiler of
the switching locomotive to the
steam pipes. Everything possible
is being done to enable the men to reach
the bottom of the slope. Thirteen of
these lives have been sacrificed in the
generous effort to reach the Imprisoned
bodies.